PEN America Interview with Joy Harjo by Jane Ciabattari
“I was entrusted with carrying voices, songs, and stories to grow and release into the world, to be of assistance and inspiration," she writes in her recent memoir, Crazy Brave. "These were my responsibility." Read More

Native People's Review of Crazy Brave
One of Native America's strongest voices, poet and musician Joy Harjo has finally told her own story in this poetic memoir. Like her rich poetry, this book brims with lyrical word pictures, glimpses of Harjo's childhood and time in Indian boarding school; her marriages, lovers and children; her struggles with alcohol and her Native identity; and coming to grips with the panic attacks that plagued much of her adult years. In between the swirls of the whirlwind, Harjo gifts the reader with a sense of her inspiration, her terrors, and the events great and small that shaped her talent.Link to jpg

Shelf Awareness
Part autobiography, part prose poem and part mythology, this memoir begs to be read aloud. Harjo traces the origin of her poetic musical and theatrical careers, but she offers much more than reminiscences. Her story is an account of the forging of a woman's soul, the hammer blows striking only to reshape her into a sharp and powerful blade of words and music. Slim of spine but lush with Harjo's trademark singing imagery, this raw and radiant coming-of-age story invites readers to "breathe the light in" and discover their own hidden capabilities. —Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger, Infinite ReadsRead More